Who Else Can You Trust?
by Littlestladybug
Summary: Raegan is a slightly abnormal seventeen-year-old girl who really just wants to finish school, get on with her irritating family and spend her weekends with her friends. Or, that's what she tells everybody who asks her about her life. Raegan Adakai is a teenage alien. She is Spark. And what she can do is nothing short of amazing.
1. Chapter 1

**This is my second fanfiction, and I'm posting it rather tentatively... I dont know if it's any good- let me know what you think!**

 **~O~O~O~**

The old man opened his eyes as the young teenage girl approached the hospital bed he was lying in.

"Hello," he said hesitantly, lifting his head up. "Do I know you?"

The girl bowed her head, the bright fire engine red covering her face until only her radioactive green eyes were visible through the long strands.

"Hello, Mr Obrien," she said, coming to the side of his bed. She touched his hand gently. "My name is Raegan. How are you feeling today?"

The man blinked as she picked up the clipboard on the end of his bed. She looked up at him. "The gash in your leg appears to be healing quite well," she said, ignoring the fact that it said his leg was going to need amputation because it was that badly injured.

She pulled his leg over to where she was standing, her fingers touching the bandage gently. Silver sparks ran along the length of the bandage.

Mr Obrien briefly wondered if his eyes were seeing it right, or if the amount of pain relief he was on was messing with his mind. He settled on the latter as the girl left him by himself in the hospital ward.

When the nurse next came in to check the state of Mr Obrien's leg later that afternoon, she was surprised to find the skin totally healed up. There was nothing but unblemished skin- where just the day before, there had been festering, putrid flesh from eight gunshot wounds that had turned septic.

"It's a miracle!" she cried, rushing from the room to gather her fellow nurses, each who had seen the severity of the wound.

Needless to say, each one was shocked. Mr Obrien loved the increased attention, and beamed at everybody who passed by to gawk. "Raegan did it," he informed everybody, including the nice men in suits who had come to visit him later that afternoon.

They had asked a lot of questions- mainly about what Raegan looked like and how she had fixed his leg. Then they began asking the nurses questions about how Raegan had got in. When they couldn't find the corresponding security footage, Mr Obrien was taken to a private room at the other end of the hospital, where doctors did lots of tests on him, before eventually concluding that it was a miracle.

Lots of news crews came to talk to Mr Obrien, but they were only allowed to talk to him when one of the men in Army uniform was sitting with him and had the power to 'veto' questions- something the Army men did a lot. Mr Obrien was constantly told that if he knew anything about Raegan, then he should tell one of the Army men, because she was in a lot of trouble.

Mr Obrien was released from hospital three days later.

He never saw Raegan- the mysterious girl who had fixed his leg in a matter of seconds- ever again.

 **~O~O~O~**

"Get up! NOW!" Raegan blinked and stared around at the small concrete cell she was lying in. Chains around her ankles clinked as she moved her legs in an attempt to stand.

"Don't bother. You won't get rid of the sedative for a while," an unrecognisable voice told her.

"What...the hell... did you... shoot me with?" Her voice slurred as she tried to regain control of her tongue.

"Trade secret," the voice chuckled, and she heard them open the door in the bars that contained her in the small cell.

"Where am I?" Raegan asked.

"Trustheim Military Barracks, sweetheart."

Raegan scowled at the owner of the voice- a young man, about twenty, with shaggy brown hair and icy blue eyes. "You brought me to Trustheim? Seriously? Do you guys have any idea of how many people want to kill me here?"

"That's actually why you're here. You're our next sparring trainer. Command reckons that the men will be more likely to participate if you are the one they're trying to incapacitate."

He unlocked the chains around her ankles and offered her his hand. "I'm Max."

Raegan smiled. "You're a new recruit, aren't you? I'm terribly sorry about this," she said to him.

Then she punched him in the face and ran off.

"Hey, you!" A nearby guard reached out a hand to grab at Raegan as she sprinted past. She tripped him and continued running along.

 **~O~O~O~**

The corridors were a maze that she had no clue on how to navigate, and yet she seemed to be getting to busier and busier areas. She winced as she ran into someone, their shoulder jarring her entire upper body.

A man in jeans and a white shirt- looking out of place in the sea of black clothed agents- stared down at her. He was impressively built, with bright blue eyes and sandy blonde hair that was kept back in a slightly-longer-than-military-regulation style.

Willing herself to get past the man, she ran at full speed toward him and slid between his legs. He growled and began running after her.

"Raegan! Stop!" he called out from behind her.

"Not on your life!" she shouted back- picking up his American accent and throwing it back at him in a startlingly good imitation- before darting around the corner. She leant back and gave him a mock salute before disappearing completely. "God bless America and all that crap!" he heard her shout as she ran away.

"Bloody renegades. They think they can do what they want," he sighed, before loading a tranquiliser clip into his modified handgun and shooting eight into Raegan. He watched as the girl stopped running mid-stride and crumpled to the floor.

One of the perks of being her handler was being allowed around her all the time, and as he holstered the gun and carried her to the apartment they shared, he realised that she was going to be a very interesting roommate.

 **~O~O~O~**

Raegan woke up in a bed that was not hers.

"The door is locked, the windows are made of bullet proof glass and there are eight guards stationed outside the room. You aren't going anywhere anytime soon," a gruff male voice informed her.

Raegan opened her eyes blearily and stared at the man at the end of her bed. "Clearly, you aren't military or you would have shot me by now," she murmured, moving a clump of hair out of her face. "Or are you a new recruit that drew the short straw?"

"I chose to be your handler," he said.

"Nobody ever gets me by choice," she whispered, sitting up and pulling her hair back into a messy ponytail. Her eyes locked with his and she slumped back against the headboard of the bed.

"What is it that you want me for?" she muttered, folding her arms. "And how long am I going to be stuck here for?"

"We're going about this all wrong," he said. "I'm Ali." He held his hand out for her to shake, which she tentatively took, but firmly shook.

Her hand was soft and warm and he relished the skin-on-skin touch- the military seemed to frown upon skin contact.

"Raegan," she chuckled. "Would you believe it, Ali, that you are the first person to treat me as anything other than something that should be caged?"

Ali looked genuinely shocked at this statement.

"They thought I was crazy," he told her. "Because I insisted on taking you as my assignment despite all the warnings they gave me."

"Ali, you probably are crazy. _Everything_ they told you is true. I have killed people. Yes, the Stockholm incident did happen, and yes, I was the agent."

"You killed the President?" Ali said, looking over at her in amazement. She gave him a wry smile.

"Look, you seem like a nice guy. Why don't you just turn around and send in a guy that hates me so that I can justify- somehow- their death?"

Ali reached forward and pinned her to the bed. "You are not killing anybody on my watch," he growled.

"Guards rotate on a fortnightly basis. I give you six days before a major incident, which will probably result in a death, or multiple deaths."

"Like who? I might not ever let you out of this room," Ali replied, a crafty smile creeping onto his face. He thought he'd won, which made Raegan chuckle and beckon for him to move in so she could divulge some sort of secret.

"It may not be the death of someone at my hands. Do you have any idea of how many people want me dead? I may not be able to get out, but most people can get in. Did that occur to you, Ali?"

He smiled. "Oh, Miss Adakai, you have such little faith in humanity. That would never happen."

The haunted look in her eyes said otherwise.


	2. Chapter 2

**Thanks to the faves and follows! It feels really good to know people like what I write!**

 **This chapter has a tiny bit of bad langauge, and I would apologise, but if I did it would mean that I wrote it in for no real reason other than poor word choices. The words are supposed to show the complicated side of Raegan. Anyway, let me know what you think!**

 **DISCLAIMER: I own nothing except my OC's.**

 **~O~O~O~**

Raegan woke up that night suddenly.

Something didn't feel right, and she had learnt over the years to go with her gut feelings.

Stealing over to the door, she silently opened it and crept into Ali's bedroom. His gun was under his pillow, and without waking him she got under the sheets next to his sleeping body. He smelt surprisingly good, and she chided herself for letting herself think about how a guy smelt.

The door to her bedroom across the hall creaked, then the whisper of 'not here' could be heard before shadows moved closer to Ali's room.

"Do we kill straight up?" The whisperer stuck their gun through the doorway.

"Kalinski sleeps through anything," another voice replied. "He won't notice until morning."

Raegan reached up under Ali's pillow and pulled out his gun, slowly removing the safety and training it carefully at the door, which was suddenly pushed open and two figures stood there.

"Die, bitches," she said, and squeezed the trigger.

 **~O~O~O~**

He woke to Raegan's shouts of indignation as she was dragged out of his room by four heavily armed guards. "What the hell is going on?" he asked sleepily.

She glowered at him from where she was straining against the guards in his doorway. "They were totally right: you really do sleep though anything."

That was when he noticed the bodies on the floor. "What part of 'no killing on my watch' did you not get?" Ali asked as she was dragged down to their shared living room.

One of the guards cuffed her hands behind her back and sat her against the wall.

The officer in charge stopped Ali with one hand to his chest. "She saved your life, Kalinski. Much as you don't want to admit it, she was right," he said quietly as they both stared at her poking her tongue out at any military personnel daring to look in her direction.

Ali left the officer in charge where he was and crossed over to where Raegan was sitting, squatting down in front of her.

"The way they're acting, it's almost like they don't appreciate me saving your life," she said bitterly.

"Thank-you," he said softly, putting his hand on her shoulder and looking her straight in the eye. "I should have listened to you before. I'm sorry."

She smiled, but her eyes focused on something behind him. "Shit," she muttered, and Ali turned his head to look in the direction she was staring in.

Max had entered the room.

 **~O~O~O~**

Max strode over to where Raegan sat, his face livid. "What the hell did you think you were doing?" he shouted.

Raegan glared at him. "Saving people's lives. What about you?" she sniped back.

"I'm just wondering how you somehow managed to singlehandedly kill two agents?" he replied.

"Easy. It was either Ali or them." Max's expression softened a little at her blunt statement. She sighed and slumped against the wall. "I'm sorry," she said. "Were they friends?"

"Nobody liked Kami and Alex. It's okay, Raegan," he said gently as a tear slid down her face.

"Can I go have a shower?" she asked. Max nodded. "But only if Agent Kalinski accompanies you." He chuckled at her expression of horror. "Just into the bathroom. We have such a thing as morals."

Raegan glared at him. "Don't take this the wrong way, but I don't really believe you."

"I won't look," Ali said. "I have some decency."

Raegan gave him a small smile. "Ali, you are yet to learn that it is not you I am worried about."

Raegan slipped into the bathroom, motioning for Ali to follow her as more soldiers made their way into the small apartment they both shared. What multiple soldiers were going to do in the already small apartment, she didn't know.

"Turn around," she ordered Ali as she pulled her shirt up over her head. He did as she told him, but not before he noticed the long- evidently deep- scars that ran across her back.

"So, what did you do that was so bad that you ended up wanted by Trustheim?" Ali asked. She turned on the shower, the sound of the spray hitting the tiles bouncing through the bathroom.

"I was in the science division," she replied briskly. "I'm an alien, you see."

Ali inhaled sharply. "As in the 'take us to your leader' type?" he asked quietly.

"Yes, but there'll never be an actual invasion, so don't worry about that," she said softly. "I'm the last of my kind."

 **~O~O~O~**

Raegan dried her hair as Ali passed her a pile of folded non-descript clothes- a pair of blue jeans and a black shirt with a v-neckline, blushing a deep red that was a stark contrast to his sandy blonde hair and turning away, whistling softly as she got dressed.

Her damp red hair cascaded down her back as she pulled on the t-shirt.

"If you don't mind me asking, how did you get the scars on your back?"

"I do mind, actually, but if you must know, that was the Trustheim Disciplinary Code 804."

"You mean... they lashed you?" Ali asked, horrified. "How old were you?"

"Twelve." Rage overcame Ali's facial features briefly before it disappeared. "I cannot believe that the Director allowed for that to happen," he said quietly.

"The Director was the one who delivered it," Raegan replied bitterly, pinning her damp hair away from her face.

"The Director is a good man. I doubt he would allow anybody to be lashed," Ali mused aloud.

"And yet he did. I think you need to rethink your perspective of the Director." She turned to face him, anger distinctly on her face.

"Goodnight, Ali. I will keep watch- make sure nobody tries to kill you."

 **~O~O~O~**

He woke to Raegan in the kitchen, making breakfast while writing quickly on a notepad.

"What you doing?" he asked sleepily, stifling a yawn and collapsing into a bench beside her.

"I caught a glimpse of Max's mind last night. I'm trying to remember as much as I can from his thoughts. It's hard enough as it is, so do you feel like going and pouring some tea for me?"

"Why not coffee?" Ali asked inquisitively, pouring some of the warm brew into a mug and sliding it over to her. She took a sip, glancing over at him with one eyebrow raised.

"Some people are just far too dependent on a morning caffeine fix," she sighed, scribbling over the pages yet again.

"And yet, you just drank something that contains caffeine," he countered. "So yeah!"

She responded by poking her tongue out at him. "It's not my fault you idiots are that uncultured that you don't have decaffeinated tea," she teased.

"We aren't uncultured!" Ali spluttered, spitting the sip of coffee he had just had into the kitchen sink. Raegan raised an eyebrow.

"Really?" she asked sarcastically. "Because what you just did is clearly the height of civilisation."

Ali scowled at her and took a gulp of coffee. "So, what you got on everybody's favourite S.O?"

He craned his neck to read her scrawled writing on the almost full notepad. She tapped it a few times with her pen before draining the mug of tea and looking up at him.

"Operation Twilight, Project HERO, some Initiative involving me, and some weirdo called Fury. Wears an eye patch, looks a bit like a pirate. He's a Director of some organisation that Max cannot say without an acronym."

"Nothing like the Director here?"

"If by that, you mean he doesn't give people beating for no apparent reason, then the answer is yes. He seems pretty nice in Max's memories, if a little scary."

"I'm flattered, Miss Adakai," a voice said from the couch.

Raegan whirled around and pulled the gun out from her jeans pocket.

Ali gave her a sideways glance. "I am going to be sensible and not ask how you acquired the gun and which of the higher-ups I am going to have to talk to about this," he said slowly.

Raegan snorted. "Wise choice, Ali."

"That's interesting," the voice continued. "Why do you converse with one of your captors and use his actual name?"

"Hey, I will be the one asking the questions thank you," Raegan snarled. "How did you get in here?"

She noticed the open air vents and sighed. "Barton showed you the way to my room, didn't he?"

"No, he didn't," a female voice said silkily as the owner strolled around the corner, gun in hand. "I did."

Raegan smiled. "Natasha," she said, relief overtaking her features.

"Hey Raegan. Ears still pointed?"

"Government agencies and secret organisations still after me too, I see," Raegan said sarcastically, motioning toward the man on the couch's head with her gun. "Mind telling me who this idiot is?"

The man stood up, and Raegan instantly noticed the eye patch covering his left eye. "My name is Nick Fury and I am the Director of SHIELD. I'm here with a proposition for you, Miss Adakai."


	3. Chapter 3

**Lots of view, a few favourites... I think you guys might like me!**

 **Disclaimer: I own nothing except my OC's.**

 **~O~O~O~**

"No," Raegan said firmly, looking directly in Fury's good eye.

"You would be exonerated of all your past crimes," Fury countered, gazing at Natasha, who nodded in agreement.

Raegan casually holstered her gun, flicking the safety off.

"What crimes would they be, Director? The only thing you've got on me is illegal entry into the country, and that is because I'm an alien," she replied, her voice hard and emotionless.

"Funny, Raegan," the Director of SHIELD said, rolling his good eye.

"You got an eye twitch or something?" she chuckled, watching him glare at her.

"Captain, would you mind explaining to Miss Adakai who you are, and why you are here?"

Ali sighed deeply, rubbing the back of his neck as he nervously looked at Raegan.

"Ali?" she asked tentatively. "What the hell is going on here?"

He looked at Fury for permission- something the man confirmed with a slight, almost imperceptible nod of the head- before taking a deep breath.

"My name isn't Ali Kalinski, Raegan. It's Steve. Steve Rogers. You may also know me as-"

"- Captain America," Raegan finished for him. "So, want to explain why you're here, man-who-is-not-Ali?"

Natasha laughed, pausing as Fury stared at her in amazement.

"Stark will get on well with her, sir," she said hurriedly. "However, now that I have your attention, I need to tell you that the system mainframe will be back up in ten minutes, and we need to get out of here sooner rather than later."

Fury turned his eye on Raegan. "So, are you joining us or staying here, Miss Adakai?" he asked, slowly standing up from the couch.

Raegan glanced at Ali- no, Steve- anxiously. He gave her an encouraging nod before she stood up beside him.

"What the hell. Why not? I'll probably like it more there than I will here."

Steve laughed. "SHIELD food sucks. Just a warning."

"Great," Raegan groaned.

 **~O~O~O~**

"He's called Loki," Natasha said, entering the flight deck area that both Steve and Raegan were sitting it, reading paper files as Steve was yet to adjust to the whole e-version of things.

Steve whistled. "The world has gotten weirder while I was asleep."

Raegan snorted. "You're telling a super-scary assassin and an alien this? Steve, I'm shocked at your profound lack of observation skills."

Natasha chuckled.

"Dr Banner?" she called, waving at a scientist standing in the corner, fidgeting with some sort of device which made the occasional beep. "Do you want to come down and have a chat?"

A nervous looking man with plain brown hair and glasses slowly made his way over to where they were sitting. He was wearing a bright white lab coat, which appeared to have a bright pink stain just above his shoulder, the by-product of some dangerous chemical experiment.

"This is Dr Bruce Banner, Raegan- he'll be helping us locate the Tesseract, and hopefully Loki while we're at it."

Raegan stood and held out her hand for Dr Banner to shake. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Dr Banner. You actually understand what the hell is going on around here. I'm seriously impressed."

Dr Banner chuckled. "Please, call me Bruce, Raegan. It would be easier with Stark here, but Fury doesn't want an egocentric billionaire running around causing all types of mayhem."

"For once, I think I'm kind of inclined to agree with him," Natasha said thoughtfully.

"Natasha, what is the world coming to? First Steve, now you?" Raegan gasped in mock-horror, clutching her chest.

Natasha playfully punched her on the shoulder.

Bruce looked mildly interested in the interaction. "Do you two know each other well?" he enquired politely.

"Yes," Raegan replied, tucking a strand of red hair behind her ear, the pointed tip protruding from the side of her head. "She got me out of Trustheim three years ago."

"And yet, you still ended up back there," Natasha retorted. "Care to share with me how you unravelled both mine and Clint's hard work?"

Raegan shrugged. "They tracked me down- we got into a car chase and I ended up crashing into some old guy who got shot by the PIG's following me. I snuck into hospital and healed him, got kidnapped when I left about two days later and then ended up in Trustheim for sparring practice. The rest you already know."

"PIG's?" Steve asked quietly, the term reminding him of his old military days.

"People In Green," Raegan replied. "Army personnel and soldiers."

"Right," Steve said, looking at the man who approached him, with a balding head and dressed in a tight black suit that made him look almost unremarkable. "Agent Coulson," he greeted.

"Captain Rogers," the man- Agent Coulson- said, nodding before walking over to talk to Fury, who stood on the bridge.

Raegan shrunk back a bit at the sight of Agent Coulson, something both Steve and Natasha noticed.

 _"_ _What was that?"_ Natasha mouthed to Steve as Raegan smiled and absentmindedly began checking the knives she had stolen from a passing-by agent and the gun that was strapped to the holster around her waist.

Steve shrugged. Bruce, who had been observing them, slowly approached the teenager.

"I need some help in the lab," he said, watching as she looked up, her eyes resembling that of a spooked animal before she sheathed the knives and hid them at various locations on her person. "Do you think you could be able to assist me?"

Raegan stared blankly at him, before linking her arm with his and smiling brightly. "Lead the way, good doctor!" she exclaimed, her voice chirpy as they disappeared toward the labs.

 **~O~O~O~**

Natasha and Steve exchanged meaningful glances as the pair left the flight deck.

"What was that about?" Natasha asked, watching as Steve sighed and whacked his head on the table.

"Have you ever read Macbeth, Agent Romanoff?" he asked curiously, looking up at the assassin. When she shook her head, he continued. "They kill the king so that Macbeth can become king, but they do it in secret and pretend to be shocked when the news is announced. Lady Macbeth- his wife- calls it a 'false face', in which Macbeth does not show his true emotions."

"So, are you saying that she's linked to Coulson somehow and it's not good history?" Natasha asked.

"That's exactly what I'm saying. She did it a lot when we were at Trustheim, even though we were only there for a day and a bit," Steve said, speaking to the table.

"Son of a gun," Natasha murmured, gazing icily at Coulson, who noticed the assassins glare and flinched. He excused himself from the conversation he was having and walked over to join Natasha.

"Ah, Agent Romanoff! Just the person I was looking for! Has Doctor Banner proceeded any further in his search for the cube?" Coulson asked, his voice oddly cheerful.

"Cut the crap, Agent. What is your position on Raegan Adakai?" Natasha snapped.

"Spark is here? Oh my gosh, she actually came?" Coulson's face changed from serious to shocked and then to excited within a matter of seconds.

"She seems scared of you, Agent Coulson," Steve added as Natasha took a menacing step toward Coulson. "Why would she be scared of you?"

Coulson shook his head. "I don't know. _I really don't know_!" he added at the end as Natasha held a knife to his throat. The flight deck was so silent a pin would have been heard if it was dropped.

At that point in time, Raegan came running out of the lab, Bruce lagging behind her.

"Stuttgart, Germany. Bruce is working on the exact address, but we'll work it out as we go."

"Ah, who said you would be coming?" Natasha tutted, checking her guns.

Raegan grinned. "Well, I did of course."

 **~O~O~O~**

 **Leave a review if you like it? Peace out.**


	4. Chapter 4

**So, still no reviews, but I have hit 250+ views, so thank to everybody who has read my story... I still don't know where I'm headed with this- suggestions would be very much appreciated.**

 **DISCLAIMER: I own nothing except my OC's.**

 **~O~O~O~**

"Out of the entire base full of scientists, and with you guys even knowing my shoe size, do you think you could have come up with- I don't know- a _less tight_ costume?" Raegan asked, tugging at the thin, flexible, super-tough material that clung to her figure in ways that the clothes she had worn before never had. She was curvy in all the right places, slim in all the others. Her uniform was silver and green, with brown, leather boots and a small green eye mask to 'hide' her identity from the general public.

Steve sat beside her, his shield propped up against his feet as he watched her struggle to put on her mask correctly.

"Here," he said as Natasha brought them into Germany, reaching out and taking the mask from her. He slid it up over her eyes, smiling as she wrinkled up at her nose at the feeling of new weight on top of it.

"How do I look?" she asked, twirling around and grinning cheekily at him.

"Beautiful," he blurted out, before covering his mouth and blushing a vivid shade of red.

Natasha chuckled as Raegan stared at him slack-jawed.

"We're here, Captain!" Natasha called from the cockpit. "You're up!"

"Aw, come on!" Raegan complained, making sure that Steve's uniform was properly adjusted before giving him a small smile and watching as he blushed for the second time in as many minutes. "You get all the fun," she whined.

Steve gave her a grimace. "Let me tell you, it's no picnic being on the battlefield."

She paused and glanced at him quizzically. "Did you even glance at my file? It has the count on the front. I think I'm actually beating Natasha at the moment."

"Captain, Loki is pointing a weapon at a civilian!" Natasha shouted. "Want to get out there and stop somebody from being obliterated?"

Raegan opened the hatch at the back of the jet, ushering the flustered captain out.

"Go," she urged as a blue light grew around Loki's sceptre.

Steve jumped out of the jet, landing just as the light hit and dissipated off his shield.

"What the hell is going on down there?" Raegan hissed at Natasha as they watched Steve begin to attack a smirking Loki.

"Sounds like Loki called him a Man Out Of Time," Natasha replied dismissively. "Steve doesn't really like that. At all."

Raegan peered down at the ensuing battle, reaching for her gun and steadily aiming it at Loki as he knocked Steve to the ground.

"I need to help him!" Raegan shouted to Natasha, who shook her head.

Something up the front began beeping.

" _Agent Romanoff. Did you miss me?_ " a voice buzzed over the PA system, before AC/DC began blasting through the speakers much to Natasha's chagrin.

"Stark," she explained with a grimace.

Raegan watched as a man clad in red and yellow armour blasted blue energy at Loki, who slumped against the stairs in defeat, raising his hands in a submissive gesture.

"Too easy," Raegan murmured, looking at Natasha to see if the ever-observant assassin had noticed what she had. Natasha seemed fixated on the conversation down below before Steve waved her down to land.

Tony Stark was every bit as arrogant as his file suggested, and straight away, he began irritating Steve, Raegan even more so.

"So, I know she's an assassin, he's a god, Capsicle here is a lab experiment and I'm a genius, so what does that make you, Pointy Ears?" he asked as he strode onto the quinjet and threw Loki into a corner. Raegan helped fasten the troublemaking god into his harness before Natasha took the jet into the air. She gave the god a small smile as she attached the handcuffs to his wrists.

Raegan noticed Steve clench his fists at the mention of the lab experiment, which made her stand up straight and glare at him.

"I am an alien, Mr Stark, and if you insult Steve, or anybody else on this team again, then I will bring the wrath of all my people down on you."

Tony Stark paled considerably and Natasha smirked.

"Is that a threat, Sparky?" he asked, taking a menacing step toward her.

She took a step toward him, squaring her shoulders in anticipation of a fight.

"Yes, Stark, it is. Just so we're clear, I _really_ don't like you."

"The feeling appears to be mutual," Stark said through gritted teeth, looming over her.

"I'm not afraid of you," she said quietly, the lethality evident in her voice as she stared up at him.

Steve stood up and separated the pair, pushing Raegan behind him protectively.

"Okay, that's enough," he said sternly. "Let's just wait until we get back to base before we address this issue."

Raegan flexed her knuckles before going and taking a seat beside Loki. He gave her mischievous smile.

"What are you staring at, Rock of Ages?" she growled.

Loki just chuckled as Tony considered what she had just said, smiling to himself a little.

It was going to be a long, awkward flight.

 **~O~O~O~**

They sat in silence as Natasha began to have a conversation with Fury back at base about the interrogation of Loki, who sat beside Raegan quietly, his head bowed as the storm around them grew.

Steve stood up and slowly approached Tony, who stood in the middle of the quinjet.

"I don't like it," he said quietly to Tony, glancing at the god who sat silently in the corner, beside Raegan.

"What, Rock of Ages giving up so easily?" Tony asked, directing his full attention to Steve. Steve thought he saw Raegan's lips turn up at the sound of her nickname being used on Loki, but it was gone from her face- wiped off by that mask she wore whenever she was around people who scared her, or she wasn't comfortable around- before he could ascertain if he had actually seen it or not.

"I don't remember it being that easy," Steve hissed, looking sideways at Loki before turning back to Tony again. "This guy packs a wallop."

"Still, you were pretty spry for an older fellow." Tony swung his head in Steve's direction, causing the super soldier to narrow his eyes. "What's your thing- Pilates?" Tony continued.

"What?" The confusion on his face was priceless. Loki looked equally as confused, causing Raegan to grin.

"It's like Calisthenics," Tony explained. "You might have missed a couple of things, you know, doing time as a Capsicle."

Steve glared at him. He was beginning to see why Raegan didn't like Tony and she had only known him two minutes.

They stood there for a brief moment as Steve thought of what he was going to say next in retaliation.

"Fury didn't tell me he was calling you in," Steve said bitterly.

"Yeah, there's a lot of things Fury doesn't tell you," Tony said as lightning flashed across the sky, illuminating the faces of the occupants of the jet.

The electrical storm outside had worsened considerably as the argument had continued. Natasha took her hands off the controls for a minute to stare at the sky before she turned to the three superheroes that were in the back.

"Where's this coming from?" she asked, peering through the window out to the sky.

The jet rumbled as the thunder passed through it, shaking everybody to their core. Loki glanced up at the roof, his eyes wide as more thunder crashed around them. Steve noticed this, taking on a new tone of voice to deal with Loki.

"What's the matter?" he asked, his voice harsh. "Scared of a little lightning?"

Loki grimaced. "I'm not overly fond of what follows," he replied, as something thudded on the roof.

Everybody in the jet flinched and looked up, Loki wincing as if he knew what was coming and was mentally preparing himself.

Raegan jumped to her feet and unsheathed her knives as Tony placed his helmet over his face and Steve grabbed his shield. Her hands sparked green as she felt her power stir within her.

Tony strode forward, pressing the controller that released the door to the cargo hold of the jet. It let out a pneumatic hiss as it opened.

"What are you doing?" Steve yelled over the rush of the wind.

Tony stared out into the airspace behind him as a man clad in similar armour to Loki's, hammer in hand and long blonde hair landed in the jet. Tony held out a hand to blast him, but the man just threw his hammer and sent Tony flying backwards into Steve as he reached out to grab Loki.

Raegan slashed at his hand with one of her confiscated knives before he threw his hammer at her and grasped Loki by the front of his shirt.

The pair flew off as Tony pulled himself to standing. "And now there's that guy," he muttered, stalking toward the exit of the jet.

"Another Asgardian?" Natasha shouted, pushing at some buttons.

"That guy is a friendly?" Steve yelled in bewilderment as he helped Raegan up.

"It doesn't matter," Tony said. "If he frees Loki or kills him, the Tesseract's lost."

"Stark!" Steve commanded. "We need a plan of attack."

Tony turned around to face Steve. "I have a plan: attack."

And with that, he jumped off the jet, following the direction of Loki and Hammer Guy's flight path.

Steve sighed and ran forward, grabbing a parachute.

"I'd sit this one out, Cap," Natasha advised, flicking control switches expertly.

"I don't see how I can," Steve said, as Raegan helped adjust the straps on his parachute, smiling at her while green sparks healed the newly forming bruises on her cheek.

"These guys come from legend," Natasha informed him. "They're basically gods."

"There's only one God, ma'am," Steve replied, checking the straps one last time before looking up at Natasha. "And I'm pretty sure he doesn't dress like that."

He grabbed his shield and took a flying leap out of the jet.

Natasha and Raegan exchanged looks. "I'm going after him," Raegan said quickly, grabbing at another parachute and strapping it on, and saluting Natasha mockingly.

"I have my earpiece, I'll let you know when I've recovered Loki," she said, before jumping out of the jet after Steve.

 **~O~O~O~**

Loki stood alone on a cliff top- Hammer Guy was nowhere to be seen. As Raegan removed her parachute, he held up a hand.

"I'm not going to try and hurt you. If I did, I have no doubt that your friend the spider and the Man Out of Time would kill me."

"What makes you think that I think you would try and hurt me, Lokes?" she asked quizzically, causing him to turn around and stare at her.

"What do you mean by that?" he asked smoothly, trying to hide his astonishment. She tapped the side of her head, grinning.

A small crash about four hundred metres away caught her attention.

There was a small lull of silence before Tony's voice could be heard loud and clear.

"Doth mother know you weareth her drapes?" he asked, his tone highly insulting.

"Uh-oh," Loki and Raegan said simultaneously.

Thor threw his hammer at Tony, who went flying backward yet again, Tony glaring up at the Asgardian as he approached.

Loki smirked and Raegan punched him in the arm.

"Ow!" he complained. "Why are you hitting me? You don't like him either!"

"Yes, but you're forgetting that you're the bad guy here. I oppose you and your actions, idiot. Even if he is Tony and deserves to get his butt whipped by a hammer-toting maniac."

Loki smiled, but this time it was a warm and almost genuine smile. "I like you. Do you feel like becoming my minion anytime soon?"

She chuckled. "No, because of two reasons. One: the term 'minion' is that of a glorified slave, and I kind of like freedom and being paid. Two: you are inherently evil and therefore must be stopped. Becoming your minion would not exactly help."

"Touché," Loki muttered bitterly as Raegan handcuffed him and began leading him towards the clearing in which Tony and Hammer Guy were fighting.

She pressed her finger to her ear. "Natasha? I got him. Do I need to stop the testosterone fest at all?"

"I think Steve's about to get to them," Natasha replied. "Sit back and enjoy the show. I'll be down there in a minute."

Raegan watched as Hammer Guy pinned Tony down and lifted his hammer up to deliver the final blow when a shield knocked it out of his hand and drew his attention to Steve, standing on one of the fallen trees.

"Hey!" he said sharply as they both turned to face him, weapons at the ready. "That's enough!" he chided.

He jumped and landed on the ground so that he could talk directly to Hammer Guy. Raegan chuckled as Hammer Guy exchanged a look with Loki, almost rolling his eyes.

"Now," Steve continued. "I don't know what you're planning on doing here-"

"I've come here to put an end to Loki's schemes!" Hammer Guy said exasperatedly.

Loki placed a hand over his heart in mock pain, causing Raegan to giggle.

"Then prove it," Steve was saying. "Put that hammer down."

Loki looked a bit shocked and surprised before he let out a nervous laugh. "Oh dear," he said.

"Ah, yeah, no," Tony interjected as Hammer Guy grasped his hammer and ran at Steve. "Bad call. He loves his hammer!" Hammer Guy backhanded Tony away, the suit landing on the ground with a sound that comes from severe technical malfunctions.

"You want me to put the hammer down?!" Hammer Guy yelled, jumping into the air toward Steve and raising his hammer above his head. Steve crouched below his shield, using it to cover his whole body. Raegan jumped protectively in front of Loki, knowing that if something happened to him, the Tesseract would never be found until it was too late.

As the hammer hit the Vibranium shield, a shockwave passed through the entire forest, knocking everybody to the ground, including Loki and Raegan as they landed in the soft vegetation. The wave levelled a large amount of the surrounding forest, much to Raegan's chagrin.

The three men in the clearing struggled to their feet as they took in the small amount of destruction their fight had caused. Raegan helped Loki up and the two stood at the edge, marvelling at the level trees.

"Are we done here?" Steve asked, breathing heavily as he noticed Raegan and Loki standing by the tree line.

"Are you okay?" he called as Raegan stepped out of the shadows, Loki in tow.

"Fine. Did you really think it necessary to clear that many trees?" Raegan replied snarkily, her hands on her hips as Natasha landed in the clearing. She gently nudged Loki, who took the hint and walked up the ramp to where his seat was. She helped strap him in before going and joining Steve, Tony and Hammer Guy as Natasha took off.

"My lady," Hammer Guy boomed, bowing. "I am Prince Thor Odinson of Asgard. I apologise for mine and my brother's behaviour."

"It's fine, Thor. Just tell your brother that the next time he tries to recruit me, I won't take it as well as I did today, okay?"

Steve stared open mouthed at her as she took a seat beside Loki and began cleaning her knives, much to the gods discomfort.

 **~O~O~O~**

 **So, whaddaya think? I'd love to hear your opinions!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Because I needed something to do for the two spare hours I just had nothing to do in. Honestly, I'm quite proud of the fact that I wrote 2400 words in two hours. So, here is a double update, just for you guys... Leave a review or a comment if you like it! You have no idea how much it makes my day.**

 **~O~O~O~**

"You get how this works?" Fury was saying onscreen to Loki as he stared down at the thirty thousand foot drop beneath him. "Ant." He pointed at Loki. "Boot." He pointed back at the screen that controlled the cell.

Loki chuckled, and Raegan felt Thor tense beside her at the coldness that seeped into Loki's voice. "It's an impressive cage. Not built I think, for me."

Fury just stared at him. "Built for something a lot stronger than you," he said sharply.

"Oh, I've heard," Loki said, staring directly at the camera mounted on the wall beside his cage. "A mindless beast. Makes play he's a man."

Natasha looked up at Bruce, who was staring awkwardly away from the screen in an attempt to ignore the jab Loki was sending his way.

"How desperate are you?" Loki continued. "You call on such lost creatures to defend you."

"How desperate am I?" Fury growled, his voice hard, emotionless. "You threaten my world with war; you steal a force you can't hope to control; you talk about peace _and you kill because it's fun._ You have made me very desperate."

Fury and Loki seemed to be locked in a stare off competition.

"You might not be glad you did," Fury said eventually.

"Ooh," Loki said smarmily, smirking at Fury. "It burns you to have come so close. To have the Tesseract, to have power. Unlimited power. And for what?" He grinned at the cameras, like he knew they were all watching him. "A warm light for all mankind to share? And then to be reminded what real power is." His voice was so harsh, Raegan took a step back. He reminded her of… no. She'd think about that later.

Fury's mouth twitched as he walked away. "Well, let me know if 'real power' wants a magazine or something," he said as he left the room.

The screens went blank. "He really grows on you, doesn't he?" Bruce said.

"He's going to drag this out," Steve said. "So, Thor. What's his play?"

Raegan looked at the Norse god, who looked deep in thought and a little sad. "He has an army, called the Chitauri. They are not of Asgard, nor of any world known. He means to lead them against your people. They will win him the Earth, in return I suspect for the Tesseract."

"An army," Steve clarified. "From outer space?" He looked at Raegan, who shrunk back in her seat.

"They aren't mine," she murmured, putting her hands up in a submissive gesture.

"So, he's building another portal," Bruce said, pulling his glasses off to look at Thor. "That's what he needs Eric Selvig for."

"Selvig?" Thor asked, recognition crossing his features for a brief second.

"He's an astrophysicist." Bruce amended.

"He's a friend," Thor replied absently.

"Loki has him under some sort of spell- along with one of ours," Natasha said, letting emotion flit briefly across her face as she said it. _Barton_ , Raegan thought. Loki had Clint, and now he would pay for it. No wonder the assassin seemed so down.

"I want to know why Loki let us take him," Raegan said, vocalising the point that had been running around her head the past couple of hours. "He's not leading an army from here."

"I don't think we should be focusing on Loki. That guys brain is a bag full of cats- you can smell crazy on him," Bruce piped up.

Thor whacked the table. "Have care of how you speak," he snarled. "Loki is beyond reason, but he is of Asgard, and he is my brother."

"He killed eighty people in two days," Natasha replied, devoid of emotion.

"He's adopted," Thor said hurriedly.

"I think it's about the mechanics," Bruce said. "Iridium. What do they need the Iridium for?"

"It's a stabilising agent," Tony said, entering the meeting room with Agent Coulson. Steve noticed Raegan's hands clench into fists as she tried to keep her breathing steady. He gently took her hand under the table, squeezing it gently.

"It means the portal won't collapse on itself like it did at SHIELD," Tony continued. He noticed Thor and swaggered over. "No hard feelings, Point Break, you have a mean swing. Also, means that the portal can open as wide and stay open for as long as Loki wants." He walked over to the flight controls and stared at them all, then at the crew members.

"Raise the mizzenmast! Jib the top sails," he said, watching as everyone paused in what they were doing to stare at him. "That man is playing Galaga! Thought we wouldn't notice, but we did."

Steve gave her a curious look as Tony said this. "We'll go over this later," she whispered as something of Tony's beeped. He covered one eye and looked at the controls yet again.

"How does Fury even see these?"

The female agent in the corner looked fairly unimpressed as she sighed. "He turns," she replied.

"Sounds exhausting," Tony said. He began fiddling with something. "The rest of the raw materials Agent Barton can get his hands on pretty easily. The only major component he needs is a power source of high energy density. Something to… kick start the cube."

"When did you become an expert in thermonuclear astrophysics?" the female agent- Agent Hill, Raegan thought her name was- asked suspiciously.

"Last night," Tony replied bluntly. "The packet. Selvig's notes. The Extraction Theory Papers? Am I the only one who did the reading?"

"Does Loki need any particular kind of power source?" Steve asked.

"He'd have to heat the cube to 120 million Kelvin just to break through the coulomb barrier," Bruce said from where he was pacing behind Raegan and Steve's seats.

"Unless Selvig has worked out how to stabilise the quantum tunnelling effect," Tony said, walking over to Bruce.

"Well, if he could do that, he could achieve heavy ion fusion at any reactor on the planet," Bruce replied.

"Finally!" Tony cheered. "Somebody who speaks English!"

"Is that what just happened?" Steve muttered to Raegan, who laughed.

"It's good to meet you, Dr Banner," Tony said as he shook Bruce's hand. "Your work on anti-electron collisions is unparalleled… and I'm a huge fan of the way you lose control and turn into an enormous green rage monster."

"Thanks," Bruce responded uncertainly, biting his lip anxiously as Fury appeared suddenly in the room.

"Dr Banner is only here to track the cube," he said. "I was hoping you might join him."

"I'd start with that stick of his," Steve added. "It may not be magical, but it works an awful lot like a HYDRA weapon."

"I don't know about that," Fury retorted. "But it is powered by the cube. And I'd like to know how Loki managed to use it to turn two of the sharpest men I know into his own personal flying monkeys."

"Monkeys?" Thor asked in puzzlement. "I do not understand."

"I do!" Steve burst out, looking proud of himself. "I understood that reference!" he explained. Raegan patted his arm gently.

Tony rolled his eyes. "Shall we play, Doctor?" he asked Bruce.

Bruce motioned for Tony to follow him. "This way sir."

 **~O~O~O~**

Natasha walked out a few minutes later, muttering under her breath about training rooms, while Fury and Hill did their own thing and Coulson left with Thor as he began to discuss Bilgesnipe.

"Steve?" Raegan asked, waving to get the captain's attention. "Much as I like it, do you mind maybe letting go of my hand for a minute?"

Steve blushed and hurriedly released her hand, muttering apologies.

"No, it's fine," she said softly, placing a hand gently on his forearm. "I'm sorry about freaking out when Coulson came in. He just scares me for some reason. If you hadn't held my hand, I might have had a panic attack."

"Miss Adakai?" Fury called from where he was conversing with Agent Hill.

She looked at Steve, who raised an eyebrow, but then took her hand as she walked over to where Fury stood on deck.

"Yes, Director?" Raegan asked curiously.

"Agent Romanoff mentioned to me that you had formed a bond with Loki somehow- to the point that you told the rest of the team he had offered to have you work under him willingly."

Agent Hill stared open-mouthed at Raegan, who nodded slowly.

"I'm not abusing whatever miniscule amount of trust he has in me for you guys," she said eventually. "So, it's a no to interrogation, and whatever else you and _your_ minions have concocted with me in mind."

Fury stared at her in disbelief. "Aha, Mr Spy, that's right. I can have my secrets too," she said triumphantly.

Steve frowned as she danced happily across the deck, poking her tongue out at the confused Director.

"You see Fury, recruiting me was a win-lose situation for SHIELD. Because I have a skill set that even the military has refused to share with you. And it's even more fun to watch you squirm as you try to work out how I know things that I shouldn't."

"Romanoff told me about your argument with Stark on the jet. She also mentioned the trust you seemed to place in Loki even though nobody else did. It's those small things that make me wonder if you are on our side or not, Miss Adakai." Fury narrowed his eyes at her.

Raegan smirked.

"I'm secretly working for Loki," she said eventually, after a long, awkward pause. She started taking large, clomping steps forward, her arms stretched out in front of her as one does when pretending to be a badly controlled robot. "Must… destroy… Earth. Fury… is… a… pirate. Mwa… ha… ha… ha!"

Agent Hill raised an eyebrow at Steve as Raegan pretended to bump into a wall, falling backwards and continuing her robotic evil chuckle.

"Okay, so we'll send Agent Romanoff in to talk to Loki then," Fury said, his eyes still fixed on Raegan's robot impersonation.

Steve helped her up, his fingers twining with hers as she glared at Fury.

"Loki will hurt Natasha. He'll use Barton as a bargaining tool- a weak link in her armour," Raegan muttered as Agent Hill summoned Natasha up from the training room to 'talk' with their guest.

"I don't see you offering to go in there," Fury snapped.

"Because I don't need to interrogate him, Director. He is being controlled by something else, something worse than Loki, something that is planning far more destruction than this crazy god is."

"How do you know for certain? Did you happen to walk up to him and _just ask_?" Fury growled.

"No, I read his mind," Raegan retorted, watching as the Director paled considerably.

"How? Whose minds have you read since you were here?" he asked, instantly on the offensive.

"Only the minds of those I perceive as a threat," she replied sweetly. "Which means that I have picked the brains of everybody aboard this Helicarrier apart from those on my team. So yes, that means that I have been in your head, Director, and I have seen your dirty little secrets. 'Phase Two' ringing any bells at all?"

Fury reached for his gun, but a shot of bright green sparks prevented him from touching even the holster.

" _Don't_ ," she hissed warningly as Natasha entered the room.

"Ah, I see the Director has found out what it is you can do," she remarked dryly, receiving a glare from Fury.

" _You knew_?" he shouted. "Agent Romanoff, you have a duty to report all information back to me! Why did you not tell me that she can read minds before we let her into a top secret facility?"

"I thought it would be funny," Natasha said, deadpan.

"Indeed it was," Tony said, entering the room with Bruce in tow. "I have saved the footage and uploaded it onto YouTube, Fury."

Raegan snorted. It sounded like something Tony would do, even if what he had just said was an empty threat.

"You're bluffing," Fury said, glancing at Raegan to discern her reaction to Tony's statement.

She grinned. "I wouldn't trust the crazy alien, Director," she said plainly. "But he's totally bluffing."

"I want a tech team with me in the lab in five minutes or less ASAP!" he yelled at Agent Hill, who began relaying the instructions to the helicarrier. Fury looked at Raegan, who gave him a quizzical look- raising an eyebrow and smirking. He stormed out of the room, living up to his surname.

Tony high-fived Raegan, and Steve seemed to resent the fact that she and Stark were bonding. _It's not fair,_ he thought. _Stark was such an arrogant prick to her before- why does she forgive him so easily?_

Raegan looked up at him. "Because we need to work as a team, even on trivial things such as pranking Fury. Steve, you need to forgive Tony for being as rude to you as he is, and Tony, you need to relinquish the bad memories of your childhood and your father to help save the world from the crazy god."

Everybody stared at her. "So it's true? You _can_ read minds?" Bruce asked.

"Yes," she said slowly, hesitantly. Steve noticed her body tensed up as if it she were subconsciously waiting to be hit.

"Cool," Tony said flippantly as he and Bruce walked up to the lab, before pausing on the stairwell and looking at Natasha pointedly. "Aren't you supposed to be socialising with Reindeer Games right now?"

"I was wondering if Raegan wished to join me," Natasha responded, her voice almost pleading.

Raegan sighed. "Yeah, why not? I'll watch from outside though- I can still pick up his mind from through the doors."

She squeezed Steve's hand gently- he still hadn't let go from the whole confrontation with Fury- and stared up at him.

"Go and talk with Tony. And please try not to kill each other during that time. I'll come and find you once we've finished 'chatting' with Loki. Do you think you can handle that?"

Steve nodded slightly, gazing directly into her eyes. "Stay safe, okay?" he murmured, tucking a flyaway strand of her braided back red hair behind her ear without even realising he had done it.

"Okay," she whispered as he released her hand reluctantly.

She smiled, squared her shoulders and followed a smirking Natasha- who was lingering by the doors- out of the room.

 **A/N: So, I have a reply to a reviewer: Caitie-AwesomeHippie.**

 **First of all- thank-you! You have officially made my day!**

 **My answer to your question is: she's from one of Thor's Realms. Meaning, she could be from a tenth... making her defintely the last of her kind. I was tossing up making her a Dark Elf for a while, but I don't think it would make the story work as well. Thor will know of her eventually. Raegan is telepathic, has accelerated healing (all of my OC's do- it's an artistic failing) and can output green energy to do what she wants- usually attack somebody, heal, or shield herself** ** _or_** **others. Oh, and she's a top notch assassin. I hope my rant answered your questions.**

 **To the rest of you, leave a review if you like. Or not. It's really up to you, but I would appreciate it :)**


	6. Chapter 6

**I have hit 500 views! Thanks guys! It makes me so excited, you know! Leave a review if you like it- constructive criticism is encouraged!**

 **~O~O~O~**

"I'll be watching from this monitor. If I get anything, I'll relay it to you via your earpiece. Remember, you're going to have to let him get under your skin before he'll reveal anything- he needs to think that you are too absorbed in your own pain to hear his plan."

Natasha nodded and let the doors slide silently shut after her. Raegan settled herself down on the chair Agent Coulson had procured for her in front of the computer and watched.

Natasha stood out of Loki's line of sight as he paced his cell, observing as he paused and looked up at her, a small grin breaking out on his face.

"There's not many people who can sneak up on me," he said.

"But you figured I'd come," Natasha replied harshly.

"After…" He appeared to lose track of his thoughts, but he took a confident step forward. "After whatever tortures Fury can concoct, you would appear as a friend, as a balm." He paused. "And I would cooperate."

"I want to know what you've done to Agent Barton," Natasha said plainly.

Loki shrugged. "I'd say I've expanded his mind."

"And once you've won, once you become king of the mountain, what happens to his mind?" Natasha asked, approaching the cell.

"Is this love, Agent Romanoff?" Loki asked succinctly.

"Love is for children," Natasha said, repeating the line that Raegan had heard quite a few times in her dealings with Natasha and Clint. "I owe him a debt."

 **~O~O~O~**

Raegan watched as Natasha sat down and began to talk to Loki about her life- it was a tactic she had employed before- the exchange of information that Loki hadn't realised was going on.

"What do you think you are doing here, Miss Adakai?" Fury's loud voice startled Raegan out of whatever trance the conversation had put her in.

"Natasha asked me to supervise, and also to check out his mind while she was talking to him. There's a lot of hate and rage going on inside his mind- I'm having trouble sorting through that," she replied coolly.

"What interrogation method is she using?" Coulson asked, appearing behind Fury's shoulder.

"Twenty-five," Raegan said, turning back to the screen.

"No, absolutely not," Fury growled. "She'll reveal too much information to the enemy."

He started toward the door, but without even looking, Raegan shot green light at him, causing him to pause and turn to her.

"It's working, you idiot. After analysing Loki's mental state, I decided that this would be the best form of interrogation. Now, shut up so I can watch this."

Fury just stared at her in disbelief as she continued watching.

 **~O~O~O~**

"This is my bargain, you mewling quim!" Loki spat at Natasha as she backed away from him, fear evident on her face.

She took a deep breath and sounded as if she were crying.

"You're a monster," she said quietly.

Loki chuckled menacingly from where he stood. "Oh no. You brought the monster."

Natasha straightened. "So, Banner? That's your play?"

"What?"

Raegan put her fingertips to her ear. "Loki means to unleash the Hulk," she informed the team. "Keep Banner in the lab, we're on our way. Send Thor as well."

Natasha was walking out of the room before pausing at the steps, spinning to face Loki.

"Thank-you for your co-operation," she said quietly before exiting to see Fury and Coulson standing next to Raegan, who was waiting for her.

"Let's go," Raegan said, motioning for Natasha to follow her.

"Where do you think you are going, Miss Adakai?" Fury asked, grasping Raegan's upper arm tightly. She flipped him and smirked at him as he lay on the floor, groaning.

"I'm going to go and save the world, Director. You can get in my way if you want, but I don't recommend it."

Coulson stared at Raegan in admiration before offering his hand to the Director as Natasha and Raegan ran away, to the lab, he presumed.

"She's certainly something else," he remarked to Fury as the peeved Director dusted himself off.

"That she is," he replied, staring after her. "Tell me, Coulson, how did she get to Earth?"

 **~O~O~O~**

"What is Phase Two?" Tony asked, swinging himself off the bench he was sitting on and displaying the screen he was looking at to the whole room- including Fury.

"Phase Two is-" Raegan began, before Steve dumped a large, nasty looking gun on the bench beside her.

"SHIELD uses the Tesseract to make weapons. Sorry, the computer was moving a little slow for me," he said, glancing at Raegan. "You knew about this?"

She nodded. "I knew it was important- but I didn't have all the information. The man's mind is like a safe. I know that it looks a bit like a HYDRA weapon from your memories, yeah?"

"Hang on- you said _mind_." Tony held up a hand to halt the conversation.

"Yes, Stark, I can read minds. I can hear your thoughts, your deepest secrets and fears, and I can see the faces of your loved ones," she snapped.

"I don't have any-"

"Pepper Potts, CEO of Stark Industries. You're thinking about proposing once this mess is over," Raegan replied. "Now, you hacked into the mainframe. Tell me what you found on Phase Two."

"They're nukes- based off old HYDRA weaponry from what I can see," Tony replied, showing her a screen just as Fury stormed in, guns metaphorically blazing.

"What is Phase Two, Director?" Steve asked, although he already knew the answer. Fury went tight-lipped and refused to make eye contact with anybody in the room.

Thor and Natasha entered the room quickly behind him, Thor wearing a look of grim determination that seemed to inform everybody that he was just about ready to punch somebody's face in.

"Did you know about this?" Bruce asked Natasha.

She, like Fury, also refused eye contact, and swiftly changed the subject.

"Do you want to think about removing yourself from this environment, Doctor?" she asked in her assassin's voice- cold and business-like.

Bruce snorted. "I was in Calcutta. I was pretty well-removed."

Natasha took a few steps toward Bruce. "Loki is manipulating you."

"And you've been doing what, exactly?" he shot back.

"You didn't come here because I batted my eyelashes at you," Natasha said, her voice going colder if it were possible.

"I'm not leaving just because you're suddenly getting a little twitchy," he replied, walking over to the screen with the Phase Two plans on them. "I want to know why SHIELD is using the Tesseract to create weapons of mass destruction."

A device on his wrist beeped, but he ignored it.

"Because of him," Fury replied, pointing to Thor.

Thor looked incredibly confused. "Me?"

"Last year, Earth witnessed a grudge match the likes of which we had never seen," Fury said. Raegan rolled her eyes at this statement. "Which levelled a small town," he continued, his tone sterner. "We had to come up with something."

"Oh yeah, because a nuclear deterrent always calms everything down," Tony interjected.

Raegan found herself instantly warming to him.

"Miss Adakai! What have you told them?" Fury shouted, noticing her small smile.

Raegan shrugged. "All of it," she replied nonchalantly.

Fury strode over to her and stared down at her.

"You disobeyed orders," he said eventually as they had a staring contest.

"You are in danger of violating some very big international agreements. I think we've both done something wrong today, haven't we?"

"What did you do wrong?" Thor asked curiously. Raegan gave Steve as sad smile.

 _Watch this,_ her voice said, echoing within his brain. Her lips hadn't moved.

"I didn't take Loki up on his recruitment offer."

And that was when Fury's hand descended and connected with her face.

 **~O~O~O~**

 **A/N: So, that was kind of a terrible ending to the chapter... I'm sorry.**

 **I would love to hear your thoughts! Leave a review! And if you have any questions, I will try and answer them.**

 **This is a quick answer to Rick's question: I'm considering it. I don't know if I'll get a good storyline going for Raegan, but I might go with CA:TWS... It may take time. I haven't really considered finishing this fic yet. Raegan has a lot of potential as an OC- I will try my best!**


	7. Chapter 7

**I left it on a cliffhanger. I know. I'm evil.**

 **I'm also sorry that I made Fury evil. For me, he had that vibe in the film- desperate to win, no matter what the cost- and I know that some people like Fury, but he and some of the members of SHIELD scared me with their attitudes, so I wrote it as I saw it.**

 **Small language warning (nothing major, although that could be because I'm Australian and we have no filter on our bad language).**

 **REVIEW! Please. Cos I asked nicely?**

 **~O~O~O~**

Nobody moved from where they were standing. Whether it was from the shock or the disbelief, Raegan was yet to decide. Fury hit her a few more times, and surprisingly, she didn't fight back. When the team realised this, Steve leapt forward and swung his fist into Fury's nose. There was crack as bones broke beneath his hand, and Fury stumbled backwards.

Tony found himself looking at a very surprised Raegan, who seemed unsure of her surroundings. And as she turned her face toward his… _hell_ , he could almost see the carnage in her eyes as she looked at him in fear.

"Please," she whispered beseechingly, her voice shaking. "No more."

Tony gently led her out to the hallways and into his and Bruce's personal lab, shooing away a startled lab tech as he sat her down. Green light zipped across her skin, erasing bruises and healing cuts.

Steve came barrelling down the halls and stopped when he saw Raegan sitting curled up in the corner with Tony.

"Raegan?" he asked gently, stooping down to her level. She turned her face up to look at him, the fear in her eyes making his heart stop. It gradually died away as she studied his face- those bright blue eyes that were focused so intently on her and the small lines around his eyes that crinkled as he gently cupped her face in his hands and smiled, pressing his lips to her forehead.

Raegan stopped and did the unthinkable as Steve stared at her.

She let her emotions get the better of her, something that she had never done.

She kissed him.

And then passed out.

 **~O~O~O~**

"Capsicle got a little action," Tony was informing the team as Raegan did her post-wake up checks. Despite being a little sore, she seemed okay.

Her eyes fluttered open to see Thor standing in front of her.

"What are you doing?" she murmured, noticing Steve hovering behind Thor anxiously. "I'm sorry. I've never…"

 _Lost control like that_ , she was going to say, because the thought of it scared her.

Steve nodded graciously. "I understand," he told her, blushing a little.

Thor gave him a once-over. "Yes, I suppose you'll do," he muttered. "Though I don't think Sif will be happy about it."

"Sif? Your weird Asgardian friend? The one who came and got you after you were banished?" Stark said, proving that he had read the Asgardian's file carefully, and scrutinously enough that he knew all that SHIELD had on Asgard.

"Yes. Her very close friend had petitioned her to seek Raegan out. I did not know that Raegan was the one we were looking for until I saw the tattoo and her ears."

"I'm sorry, what?" Raegan snapped, jumping to her feet. "Why is the goddess of war searching high and low for me?"

Thor chuckled, but was cut off by a glare from Steve and then his gaze softened as he made eye contact with Raegan.

"Princess," he began softly.

Raegan's eyes widened. "Nope! I'm not dealing with this shit any longer! I will go back to living in hiding, thanks!"

"PRINCESS!" Thor shouted as Raegan clapped her hands over her ears and ran out of the room.

"NO, I CAN'T HEAR YOU!" she shouted, impossibly louder than Thor. "I AM NOT DEALING WITH THIS RIGHT NOW!"

"She's a mother-"

" _Language,_ Stark," Steve warned as Tony pursed his lips.

" _Flipping_ princess? Of what?"

"Alfheim. She is the daughter of Freyr- and an unknown mother. Raegan was named as the ruler from Freyr's death wish at Ragnarok," Thor answered plainly, as if this was the simplest thing in the world.

There were many 'what the hell's and 'shit's throughout the room, none of them quieted by Steve's glares.

"I'm going after her," Steve said, his voice determined as he strode out of the room.

"You don't even know where she went!" Bruce shouted as he left.

"He will find her," Thor murmured, watching Steve's retreating back.

 **~O~O~O~**

Steve found Raegan in the cafeteria, throwing the steamed green beans- that were, according to SHIELD, a good substitute for chips- at the heads of agents who weren't smart enough to duck for cover beneath the long metal benches.

"So, Thor's made me a lot more of a freak," she muttered, managing to get a bean pod up a harried-looking agent's nose. The situation would have been deemed amusing had it not been for the serious conversation they were having.

"You aren't a freak, Raegan," Steve said sharply.

Her head whipped around so she could examine him closely.

"You don't seriously think that? Why else would Fury keep me here?"

Steve looked perplexed. "For the Avengers Initiative?"

Raegan made a buzzer noise and stared at him as though he had just declared the moon was indeed made of cheese.

"Wrong !" she sang, before her tone became serious. "We're here because SHIELD sees us all as a threat. Something even they cannot contain."

"Raegan-"

"I'm _telepathic_ , Steve," she interjected. "Not dead. As Stark said before: Fury is _the_ spy. It makes sense." She muttered the last bit to herself.

"I don't like him either. I respect him, but I don't trust him."

"Fury's an idiot if he didn't get the man practically leading the team on his side," Raegan grumbled, then shook her head as if trying to dislodge a thought. She gave Steve a weak smile at his confusion. "The mentality is hard to get out of, you know?"

His hand gently covered hers and he laced their fingers together, Steve chuckling at her bewildered face.

"You know that comment about being caged that you made the first time we spoke?" he asked softly. "About being caged?"

She nodded slowly, watching him with surprise on her face. How on Earth could he have remembered that? She could barely remember that conversation, but that may have been owed to the absurdly large amount of tranquilisers in her bloodstream.

"You were the first person not to treat me like an animal," she whispered, her bright green eyes staring into his bright blue ones.

"Because you're not," he murmured gently, pulling her into his arms, blushing slightly at the contact, but only Stark could see it as she relaxed into Steve. The billionaire/playboy/philanthropist smirked at Steve and Raegan, but promptly stopped after Natasha smacked the back of his head. "And anybody who does- for example, Fury- will have me to deal with."

"No, not just Rogers," Stark said, stepping forward and causing Raegan to jump away from Steve. He ached from the loss of contact, and glared at Stark. "All of us. What he did was unacceptable."

Raegan scanned the cluster of people who crowded the doorway, noticing a new face and a missing one.

"Where is Dr Banner?" she asked. "And who's the guy who looks like Legolas?"

Tony snickered. "I told you, Barton. The bow and arrows aren't doing you any favours."

"Loki escaped," Thor boomed. Barton winced at the sound of Loki's name, Natasha rubbing his arm gently.

"Bruce fell off the Helicarrier as The Hulk," Tony supplied as Raegan made a 'get on with it' gesture at him. "JARVIS predicts that he had an eighty-five percent chance of surviving the fall."

"Well, that's great," Raegan moaned. "I don't suppose you've worked out where Loki is hiding out?"

Everybody looked at Clint. "I didn't need to know. Never asked, either," he said defensively.

"Coulson?" Raegan asked, watching the others exchange looks.

"Loki… killed him," Natasha said, Thor nodding solemnly along with her. "We have only had time to regroup since the attack."

Raegan stared at the ground for a little while, Steve's hand covering hers in comfort.

"Is Fury still considering Phase Two? And he was going to ship you guys out to find Loki as soon as the Helicarrier was fixed.'

"I'm not marching to Fury's fife," Tony said.

"Neither am I," Steve agreed. "He's got the same amount of blood on his hands that Loki does. But right now we've got to put that behind us and get this done. Now, Loki needs a power source. We can put together a list of-"

"He made it personal," Tony interjected, cutting Steve off. Thor looked at Tony strangely, before he glanced at Raegan, who had her head buried sleepily in Steve's shoulder as she looked at the world through half-shut eyes.

"That's not the point," Steve replied, clearly wanting to continue with his conversation.

"That _is_ the point," Tony stressed. "That's Loki's point. He can just hit us all right where we live- _why?_ "

"To tear us apart," Steve replied.

"Yeah, divide and conquer is great, but _he knows_ that he has to take us out to win, right? _That's_ what he wants. He wants to beat us, he wants to be _seen_ doing it… he wants an audience."

"Right," Raegan said, glancing at Tony as silent permission for him to continue. "Like his act in Stuttgart."

"That's just previews, though," Tony said, beginning to pace around the cafeteria. "This is opening night, and Loki, he's a full-tilt diva. He wants flowers, he wants parades. He wants a monument built in the sky with his name plastered-"

Tony paused, looking at Raegan at the same time as she was piecing it together.

"Sonofabitch."

 **~O~O~O~**

 **And so there we have it!**

 **This may be the last update for a while- I have work and school stuff to juggle even thought I'm technically on holidays... So, I'll try to post as much as I can, but I make no absolute promises.**

 **And review! It honestly makes me happy that people like reading my stories as much as I like writing them. And constructive criticism is very much appreciated.**

 **Until next time, adieu!**


	8. Chapter 8

**Feeling super productive today. Let me know what you think of Steve and Raegan- I think I'm moving them too quickly, but Steve seems like the type that would fall in love pretty hard and pretty fast… even though he's a super awkward supersoldier from the 40's. And what do we think about Tony's relationship with Raegan? I see him as the protective dad, so we shall see how that develops…**

 **Let me know your own thoughts! Leave a review! Please? Cos you love me?**

 **~O~O~O~**

"So, Thor just _left_?" Raegan asked in disbelief as they marched down the corridors. Steve's hand held on tightly to hers as he took her to where the holding cells were.

"Yep," he said, stopping at a door. Natasha and Clint sat in there, having one of their private conversations.

"Maybe we should wait…" Raegan began, but Steve opened the door.

"Time to go," he informed them.

"Go where?" Natasha asked.

"We'll tell you on the way," Raegan said.

"Can you fly one of those jets?" Steve asked Natasha, and Raegan just looked at him.

"Of course I can," Raegan said.

"No, you can't," Clint retorted. "You can't fly those things. You crashed us into that farm the last time you flew one. But I can."

Steve arched an eyebrow at Raegan, who blushed and mouthed 'I'll tell you later' to him. He exchanged a look with Natasha, who nodded before Steve relaxed a little.

"You got a suit?" he asked.

"Yeah," Clint replied with one of his famous one-word answers, throwing the towel he'd been using onto the bathroom floor.

"Then suit up," Steve told him before leaving the room with Raegan in tow. He ignored the funny looks from the agents they passed and made his way into the lab.

Fury stood there, guns metaphorically blazing.

"What do you think you're doing back in here?" he asked coldly.

Raegan narrowed her eyes at him. "We came to get some stuff," she said, picking up one of the upturned cases that had held the Phase Two shipments.

"Put that down," Fury growled, and Steve tightened the grip he had on Raegan's hand as she refused to put it down.

"Where do I come from, Director?" she asked quietly.

"Miss Adakai, that really isn't going to solve any problems."

"I can see it at the back of your mind, Fury. You're trying to hide it from me. Did you want me to dig a little deeper? Because I can. Or you can just tell me."

"Miss Adakai-"

" _Tell me,_ " she hissed, throwing the box across the room and leaving a dent in the solid steel wall. Her eyes flashed a dangerous green. Fury quickly analysed the situation and decided that it might be better off for the already damaged Helicarrier to just tell her.

"Your father… is not human."

Raegan laughed. "Well, there's a surprise."

"He is Skrull. They are a high-tech species of aliens that specialise in genetic manipulation. Specifically, the manipulation of human genes. It is our belief that while they were searching for suitable subjects, they came across your mother wandering Earth, took her, and didn't realise that she was Asgardian."

"That's why she survived, isn't it? That's why there's nobody like me on Earth?"

Fury hesitated. "Yes."

"I _knew_ it," Raegan said, lunging forward and throwing a left hook into the Director's face. The Director went flying backwards as she picked the case up from where she had dropped it and ran out of the room, Steve in tow.

"Screw you, Director!" Raegan shouted over her shoulder. "I hope that the crazy god finds you!"

 **~O~O~O~**

"He's going to be mad," Steve said, as they walked at a relatively fast pace toward the air wing. "We should get out of here before he puts the entire Helicarrier into lockdown."

"He won't," Raegan replied dismissively, watching as Clint, Natasha and Tony beckoned for the pair to join them from the other side of the air hangar.

"Did you get it?" Tony asked, grinning as Raegan produced the case and he opened it. "I'll make a few adjustments, then we should be good to go."

He caught sight of her face and his grin disappeared momentarily. "Is something wrong?"

"Fury sucks," Raegan muttered.

"Agreed," Tony replied, rubbing her shoulder gently. "I'm gonna fly off and try to negotiate with Reindeer Games now, so I want you all on a jet as soon as humanly- or non-humanly- possible so that I have back up. Fury isn't going to help us, this is something we're going to have to try to win ourselves."

"Because he sucks," Clint added. "Now, c'mon, or we're going to miss all the fun."

"Can I fly, please?" Raegan said, chasing after the two assassins walking toward the quinjet.

"Nope," they both replied without looking back.

Raegan ignored them and continued pestering.

"You'll need to override the airlock. Do you think you can do that, Stark?" Steve said, strapping his helmet on and making sure his shield was firmly in place.

Tony scoffed. "Please, hacking into the Pentagon's secure files is harder," he laughed, then stopped abruptly upon seeing Steve's face. "Not that I've ever done that before," he added hurriedly, turning to the computer and frantically tapping out a staccato pattern on the keyboard before something beeped.

"Done. I can't disable the alarm- it's too embedded and would take an hour to fully disable. We don't have that sort of time."

"Thank you," Steve said tersely, beginning to walk away. A hand on his arm stopped him and he turned to see Tony with a worried look on his face.

"Look after her, Capsicle. She's not in a good spot right now, and she most certainly isn't battle ready."

She really wasn't- he saw through her carefully crafted façade that she had somehow managed to convince two assassins was real- and it was only a matter of time before it slipped and cracked. But she was willing to soldier on, and it was something that Steve deeply admired, even though he knew Tony would definitely disapprove.

"I will," Steve promised, nodding at Tony before walking back toward the quinjet, where Clint, Natasha and Raegan were waiting.

"You had better, Capsicle!" Tony shouted after him. "Because if anything happens to her, Loki will be the least of your worries!"

Steve rolled his eyes, nodding tersely to the trio waiting patiently by the jet.

"What was that about?" Raegan asked as Steve beckoned for them to follow him on board.

"I'd rather not say," he replied, smiling at Raegan as the technician working in the cockpit glanced up at the four superheroes standing in the hold.

"You guys aren't supposed to be-" he began, but Steve held out a hand, stopping him mid-sentence.

"Son, just don't."

 **~O~O~O~**

 **Please leave a review if you like it, constructive feedback is always appreciated! In fact, any review is always appreciated!**

 **Until the next spontaneous update!**


	9. Chapter 9

**So… yes, I'm still alive.**

 **This is a short chapter I know, but I haven't read the rest of my story in a long time, and now that I am looking back at it and reading it, I've gone through and tried to update/fix/most likely ruin my next couple of chapters. But yes, this is what I've got edited (that I am satisfied with) and I figured that I may as well post it and give you all something to read.**

 **Leave a review if you like it, it would be appreciated! I like to know when people like what I write (it makes me feel** ** _so_** **much less self-conscious about my writing).**

 **~O~O~O~**

Raegan was silent on the flight to New York.

Nobody could really tell if she was silently fuming about the refusal she had received for flying the jet, Loki escaping, finding out that she was the Lost Queen of Alfheim, the impending war, the way she had been treated by Fury, or simply all of the above.

Needless to say, they left her alone.

All of them, except Steve.

He sat beside Raegan in silence, his hand holding on tightly to hers and running his thumb over her knuckles reassuringly every now and again. The two agents on board the ship pretended not to notice this, along with the numerous broadcasts they were receiving from SHIELD about the unauthorised use of the quinjet. Natasha silently filed this information away for use at a later date, or as relevant blackmail material against either the super soldier or the alien that she had come to see as a friend over the years.

"Raegan?" Clint called from the cockpit when they were nearing the city. "Can you tell me where exactly Loki is right now? Or what he's close to?"

Raegan closed her eyes and steadied her breathing for a second as she delved through the minds of the thousands of people standing below her. A flash of somebody falling from Stark Tower appeared and she watched as Tony fell from the top of the tower before being enveloped in his Ironman suit.

"He's at Stark Tower. He has already begun the attack. Thor is here too- he's on the rooftop. I just caught a glimpse of him a second ago."

A shock ran through the quinjet, throwing Raegan into Steve, who caught her and held on tightly to both her and the seat, effectively preventing them from both moving.

"What was that?" Steve shouted as the quinjet spun out of control, Clint trying desperately to regain some form of control while things beeped, whined and flashed at him to let him know that the way he was flying was terrible.

"IS THAT A FRICKING HOLE IN THE SKY?" Clint yelled, pulling the jet up and stabilising it. "NAT, THERE'S A GODDAMN HOLE IN THE SKY! THERE ARE THINGS COMING OUT OF IT!"

Raegan stared out the windows and directly at the things flowing from the hole that had opened up in the sky.

"There is no way that they are friendly," she said, watching as a building near the hole blew up. A beam of light above Stark Tower kept it open. She assumed that this meant it was a portal. And that this was the purpose of the Tesseract.

She sighed. "They are definitely not friendly and want to blow us up. Great. More bad guys to fight."

A large, worm shaped creature came out of the portal and began smashing everything in its path. It was covered in layers of thick, shiny scales that looked like they were made of metal. They glinted in the gradually disappearing sunlight, and the beast would have looked majestic had it not eaten a commercial flight that was unfortunately travelling toward the beast.

"Is that what a Bilgesnipe looks like?" Steve said. "You know, the thing Thor was going on about."

Raegan shook her head. "Bilgesnipe have horns. I don't know what these things are, and to be honest, I'm not sure I even _want_ to know. I think it's part of the army of Chitauri that Loki has amassed."

"Are you guys ready?" Clint called. "I'm going to land. You need to be ready to get out and fight."

"The civilians," Steve said to Raegan right before they landed.

A look of understanding flashed up on her face, and she nodded. "We'll get them underground. Probably safer."

"Have you got your earpiece in?"

Raegan pointed to her mask, which she held in her hand. "SHIELD built it in. Tony hacked it for me, so SHIELD no longer has access to the audio feed or the microphone. We will inevitably have to split up at some point, so yes, I am contactable." She slipped the mask on, fitting it snugly over her nose and pressing it into her skin, knowing that the smooth, breathable smart polymer would mould to the contours of her face and prevent it from being removed until she wanted it to be.

Steve stared at her for a moment before reaching out to readjust her mask to fit her more comfortably. His hand lingered, and she reached up to grasp it, holding it against her cheek as she stared back at him, her eyes searching his face to see the multitude of emotions and questions that remained unvoiced.

In that one moment, he saw the carefully and painstakingly hidden chink in her armour. She had let him in, and she was faced with the prospect of losing him as quickly as she had gained him. And while Raegan generally laughed these things off, he was something she always approached seriously. The same went for her. What he felt for her- it was love. Plain and simple. He didn't want to- no, _couldn't_ \- lose her.

"Please, be safe," he whispered as an explosion rocked the quinjet, throwing the pair off balance for a split second.

"You too," she murmured back.

He stooped down and kissed her hard. The kiss, while it lasted only a short amount of time, conveyed all their emotions, questions and ' _what if's?'_ , allowing the both of them a moment in which they could potentially say their goodbyes while also letting the other one know that they needed to be safe.

"Cap! We have to land! Loki shot the goddamn jet. Stand at the back and we'll lower the ramp for you."

Clint's voice broke them apart, Raegan smiling at Steve and gently caressing his cheek before leaving, strapping her boots up tightly and checking that the specially designed gun was firmly in place in her ankle holster. The gun was a security measure that both Natasha and Clint had pushed for about two years before she had finally got it done.

Her hand slipped into Steve's as they felt the quinjet hit the ground. He squeezed her hand before the ramp lowered, letting them view the scenes of destruction that were before them.

 **~O~O~O~**

 **I really was not sure about this chapter. If you thought it was good, please let me know! It would be very much appreciated!**

 **I'm trying to update my stories as often as I can, but laziness has somehow won the battle and I'm feeling really tired nowadays even though I do absolutely nothing except sit and read. All day.**

 **I threw in a bit of Steve and Raegan… Their relationship is moving a little fast, I know, but I think that battles tend to prioritise things. Like relationships. And not dying.**

 **So, let me know what you all thought about the chapter (I really like it when you do!), and if you have any questions, feel free to ask.**

 **Until the next update!**


	10. Chapter 10

**Hey guys! Finally got another chapter for this fic- I worked hard on it, so let me know if you like it by leaving a review.**

 **Anyway, on with the story!**

 **~O~O~O~**

Straightaway, Raegan ducked out of the way of a flying sheet of metal.

"What the heck!" she shouted over the sound of one of the building nearby being blown up by some very aggressive-looking Chitauri that then made a beeline for the superheroes running out of the quinjet.

No sooner had they done this, the quinjet blew up. As in, blew into pieces, caught fire, and then promptly exploded.

"If Fury wasn't already going to kill us, that would have cinched it," Clint muttered, pulling an arrow from the quiver on his back and notching it on his bow. "He loves that quinjet, like it is his child."

One of the Chitauri sent a blast of purple energy at Raegan, the only thing saving her by a mere second was Steve's shield, which knocked the blast away and back into the aliens, who ducked out of the way.

"We need to regroup," Steve shouted over the sounds of a nearby building crumbling to the ground. Civilians screamed and ran for cover, pushing and shoving others to the ground in their desperation.

Raegan helped somebody up and pushed them toward the nearest subway station when she felt it.

 **~O~O~O~**

The trembling. Raegan could feel it in every part of her body, from her head all the way down to her toes. Above- in the far distance- thunder rumbled and lightning flashed as the sky changed.

Everything was deathly silent, before a low sound- comparable to a ship's foghorn- emanated from the hole. It sounded ominous- it sounded evil. And it told them that whatever was going to come out of that hole was bad. A sinking feeling settled in Raegan's gut.

People scurrying on both sides of her obviously felt it too, because each and every one of them paused and looked up as the circle of black widened in the contrastingly blue sky around it as more Chitauri came spewing out in what was obviously a second wave, bursts of bright purple light striking the ground around them as more giant worm things emerged, smashing into buildings and sending debris raining from the sky onto the street below.

Somebody screamed loudly in Raegan's right ear as everybody stampeded toward the subway tunnels, shrieking and pushing, jostling to be first for fear of their own lives. She couldn't move- she felt physically stuck to where she was standing as the swarm approached, close enough that she could see their vaguely humanoid shapes and hear their primal war screams as they flew at her, purple energy strikes increasing tenfold as they honed in on what they deemed 'easy prey'.

"GET OUT OF THE WAY!" Steve yelled before a warm body tackled her to the ground and the alien war crafts buzzed over the place her head had been at just moments before.

The light beneath the skin of her hands flicked briefly before beginning to pulse along with her heartbeat, healing the small grazes on her face as her whole body buzzed and warmed with the beginnings of her powers.

"I'm fine," she muttered, looking up at Steve as he took he hand and helped her up, ignoring the green glow altogether.

"What, you deal with alien invasions all the time?" he asked, chuckling at the look of confusion on her face.

"All the time! Although I think I'm slowly going crazy."

He considered me for a second. "I have a friend who's a doctor. He might be able to help you with that."

She stared back at him, glaring at him and ducking away from falling debris. "Right, well that's fantastic, but seeing as the world kinda needs saving and there are aliens up there who made the mistake of thinking that I'm weak, I'm going to have to pick up this conversation later."

And sprung up into the air, her hands gripping onto one of the floating chariots the Chitauri were flying. Steve stared after her as she knocked the soldier flying it out of the way and took control. The sceptre that it had been using to fire blue energy at the motley bunch of superheroes hummed happily beneath her hands as she swung it around, hovering it just beside Steve.

"Steve," she said, ignoring the look of shock on his face. "Get on. We need to get to where our team is regrouping."

Natasha and Clint had already broken into a car and were driving in the opposite direction of the screaming civilians, the people parting around the car.

He clambered on and shot her a worried glance as they lifted up off the ground. "Do you know how to fly this thing?" he shouted as they narrowly missed crashing into several other Chitauri, who promptly gave chase to their sloppily driven chariot.

"I literally started driving it two minutes ago! Cut me some slack!" she shouted, whirling around and glaring at him.

"EYES ON THE ROAD!" he shouted, reaching forward and grasping the front of the flying chariot to try and correct Raegan's steering.

"WE AREN'T DRIVING ON THE ROAD!" she yelled back, swerving to avoid purple light. Steve ducked and covered his head as all of the windows on the side of a building shattered when the light impacted with it.

Raegan noticed the Chitauri that were gaining on them and th eons that were currently approaching them from the front. "THROW YOUR SHIELD AT ONE OF THEM OR SOMETHING!" she bellowed at Steve.

Steve dropped his shield when he tried to pull off where it strapped to his back. "LET'S TRY 'OR SOMETHING'!"

Raegan sighed and watched out of the corner of her eye, seven of the Chitauri slam together and explode in a massive fireball as she banked a hard right and spun around in a complete one-eighty, forcing each and every one of the aliens following them to drop to their knees in pain. Or, at least, what she thought were their knees. She hoped they were.

Steve stared at her, horrified as the Chitauri let out unholy screams of pain.

"IT'S ALL IN THEIR MINDS!" She swerved again. "WHERE ARE WE RE-GROUPING?"

He pointed at the ground a few hundred metres in front of them where the remaining Avengers were assembled.

"OKAY, I'M GONNA HAVE TO CRASH THIS! YOU'RE GOING TO HAVE TO JUMP! RECKON YOU CAN DO THAT?"

"THAT'S A FORTY FOOT DROP!" he shouted, but jumped nonetheless as she jumped from mine onto one that happened to be travelling beneath them. The flying chariot she had been badly flying collided with another office building and exploded.

"Hi," she said as they turned to see who had jumped on top of their vessel. "Sorry about this."

"Raegan-" he began, but she punched him in the face and sent him hurtling to the ground.

A few of the Chitauri stopped and helped him up. He was shaking a fist at me and shouting some really, really bad language in her direction. She chuckled whilst giving him the one-fingered salute.

Raegan flew as close as she could to them, dropping down from her chariot.

It crashed into a shop front and exploded.

"Cue the dramatic entrance," she muttered as Steve helped her up from the ground.

"Nah, would have been more dramatic if you had walked away with the explosion in the background," Clint said, smiling at her as she surveyed the beaten up team.

"Right guys. I kind of threw Loki off a flying Chitauri chariot, and he's still trying to end the world as we know it. What kind of plan do we have?"

 **~O~O~O~**

 **And so there we have it! Leave a review if you like it- reviews with feedback for me are great too- and remember: constructive criticism, not destructive criticism.**


	11. Chapter 11

**Hey guys! It's been so long, I thought I should really get to work on this fic. My second year of uni is absolutely hectic and I have assignments coming out of my ears. I do appreciate the reviews from the last chapter, it really helped me form this one. Anyway, enjoy!**

 **~O~O~O~**

"Raegan!"

Clint grabbed the injured, completely drained teenager from behind and pulled her away from the mess of alien corpses that surrounded her in the middle of the New York streets.

"Hi Clint," she said weakly as she turned to face him before her knees buckled and she collapsed into his arms.

He surveyed, her, his face betraying his thoughts as he reached up to touch his earpiece. "Steve, you need to get to us now. It's… not great."

She groaned in pain as Clint shifted his grip.

"What were you thinking?" he snapped, lying her behind a chunk of concrete and trying to stem the blood from the stab wound to her chest that was from Loki's spear. The cowardly god had attacked her while she was distracted, then fled to the top of Stark Tower.

"Ah, I wasn't?" she chuckled weakly, aware of the blood trickling from the side of her mouth, feeling faint green sparks congregate around the area. She forced the remaining energy she had left to the area around her chest wound, meaning every other wound she had promptly begun screaming at her.

"That's for sure," Tony said, landing beside the two, flipping his visor up and seeing exactly how bad it was. "You did well, kid. And by well, I mean I'm surprised you didn't have a mortal wound sustained much earlier than you did."

"Your morbid humour offends me," she grumbled, trying to sit up. Steve- who had appeared at some point in time- pushed her back down, one hand clutched hers tightly and the other gently smoothed her blood-soaked hair back from where it was plastered to her forehead. He smiled, but it seemed more like a pained grimace.

"JARVIS, assess damage," Tony ordered his AI, visor sliding down temporarily as he scanned Raegan's body. All humour drained from him, replaced with dread as he read the trauma listings.

She was dying, her energy the only reason she wasn't dead yet- it was healing the damage to her internal organs, but with the rate it was going at, she would bleed either internally or out. He kept the visor down even though the scan was complete, trying desperately to stop the tears from streaming down his face as he watched Steve tell Raegan to relax and stop being angry at Clint for pushing on her wounds, before Steve began to talk softly to her in an effort to keep her calm.

Tony placed a hand on Clint's shoulder, causing the archer to look up and see the slightly imperceptible shake of the head Tony gave. He snapped his head back to Raegan and then back to Tony as their channel became private.

"She's drained. She'll either bleed in or out. We can't save her, it's just a matter of time," Tony choked out, bordering on a sob.

"Where is the rest of the team?" Clint asked, addressing Tony.

"We're here," he heard Nat say behind them, and he spun to see the assassin's panic-stricken face as she saw her friend lying on the ground, blood pooling around her.

Tony created a channel for everybody except for Steve and Raegan.

"She's dying," he said, but this time it was a sob. "We're limited on what we can do, he ruptured organs and cut straight through her."

"I'm going to kill him, and then give him to Sif," Thor said through gritted teeth, moving toward the two people huddled against the debris in the middle of the road.

 **~O~O~O~**

She still gripped the staff she had stolen from one of the alien chariots, and felt some buzzing beneath her fingertips, unknowingly feeding off its energy. Her body knew she needed something more though.

 _Hammer_ , something at the very back of her mind whispered as Thor leant over her, worry marring his features. Despite this, Thor still wore a smile.

"Lady Raegan. You look troubled," he said, eyes crinkled in concern.

"Maybe that's cos I have blood flowing from a gaping hole in my chest that your psycho brother inflicted on me?" she hissed, wincing as Clint put pressure on the wound. She pushed him away. "Can I have your hammer for a minute?"

Thor chuckled, seemingly reluctant. It was an utter lie, however. He would have done anything for her. "It is a strange last request, but I do not think you will be able to lift it."

She grinned, and Clint rolled his eyes at her expression. "Have you seen this girl? She just attacked no less than three hundred aliens and came out of it in much better circumstances than I had expected."

"Three hundred?" Steve asked, staring at her with a mixture of disbelief and pride.

Thor handed her the hammer, and she wrapped her fingers around the handle. The hammer moved, feeling surprisingly light for something that she had expected to be much heavier. She thrust it toward the sky, listening to the distant rumble of thunder over the ocean. Steve stood up, staring at Thor and then the dying girl in the street who was holding the mythical hammer above her head and toward the sky. She coughed once, blood lining her lips as she stared up at the growing storm.

"I thought that only he who was worthy could lift your hammer?" Tony asked dryly, receiving a dirty look from Thor.

Storm clouds gathered, the thunder reverberating off the buildings until it built into a deafening roar. Lightning crackled, before one long strike found its way down to the hammer, turning rainbow before touching the head and travelling down the handle. Thor instantly knew what was happening.

"That much power will kill a human!" he yelled, lunging for her, but was thrown back by the wall of energy that had formed between her and the rest of the heroes.

"WHAT THE HELL DO YOU MEAN BY THAT?" Steve shouted angrily at Thor, his face livid.

" _Language_ ," Tony chided, realising what Raegan was doing and watching in awe.

Electricity coursed through her veins as the millions upon millions of volts surged through her body, causing all her hair to stand on edge and excruciating pain to ricochet up her arms and into her head. Her senses overloaded, leaving only room to vocalise her pain. She let out a heart-wrenching, soul-shattering scream as the energy was absorbed into her body before exploding outwards, blinding the onlooking Avengers and letting out a sonic boom that travelled several blocks.

 **~O~O~O~**

The hammer dropped to the ground with a clang as she released the handle, breathing heavily as she stared at the awestruck people surrounding her.

"Raegan?" Steve asked, and took a step back as she turned to look at him.

"Your eyes… your hair!" he stuttered, staring at her glowing green eyes and the new blonde- almost silver- streaks that ran through her hair.

He ran forward and wrapped her tightly in his embrace. "I thought I'd lost you," he murmured as she buried her face in his chest, seeking out the comfort his soothing presence gave.

"Your complete lack of mortal wounds!" Tony exclaimed after she'd reluctantly let go of Steve, clapping her on the back. "Commiserations, kid, but it looks like you have to remain on this hellhole we call Earth for a while longer."

One of the flying creatures floated over them, Chitauri dismounting and zooming toward the group.

"I'll take care of this. You guys take a moment to regroup," Tony said, sliding his visor back down and blasting into the air, giving chase to the creature with a horde of Chitauri nipping at his heels. He needed a moment to get rid of the tears that were streaming down his face. His reputation would be ruined if the team saw him.

Raegan groaned and handed the hammer back to Thor, the demigod taking a step back in surprise at the force with which she'd handed it back to him.

"Sorry. Supercharged," she muttered, her gaze not leaving the tower in front of her.

From behind them, they heard the tinny putter of a motorbike as a familiar figure made their way toward them, weaving between the burning vehicles and debris.

Dr Bruce Banner dismounted wearing ill-fitting clothing and walked over toward them.

There was a slight pause.

"So," he said, taking in the destruction and the inexplicable amount of blood covering Raegan's body. "This all seems horrible."

 **~O~O~O~**

 **Let me know what you think guys, by leaving a review. Feedback is always,** ** _always_** **appreciated. Remember, constructive criticism, not destructive.**


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